The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.

Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. "Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life." At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.

When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin--the full assembly of the elders of Israel--and sent to the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, "We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside." On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this. Then someone came and said, "Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people." At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them. Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead--whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him." When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed them: "Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. (Act 5:12-42 NIV)

[possible controversy]

This is all beginning to look very familiar. I was going to quote a few key verses from the Gospels showing where Jesus had drawn crowds and healed them, but it turns out that there are more than a dozen of them, and swamping you with Bible verses is just going to make all of our heads spin. The similarities are striking. The Apostles are doing miracles right at the doorstep of the Temple. Crowds are drawing, miracles are happening, people are being saved. And there they were, all in one accord on Solomon’s Porch preaching the word and performing signs and miracles.

What’s interesting is that word must have gotten around about Ananias and Saphira, either that or they weren’t a unique event. In 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 we find what amounts to instructions for observing the Lord’s Supper. We read it quite a bit here when we perform the sacrament. In the middle of warnings to examine our hearts before partaking, Paul says this:

A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. (1Co 11:28-30 NIV emphasis added)

This and a few other clues leaves us with the impression that in the early days of the church, the Holy Spirit was handling some of the church discipline by dropping people dead. We see from the last verse, 11, that great fear had come upon all the church.

Yet this fear did not translate into hatred. My version says the people esteemed them highly, I think yours says they were “highly regarded”. These were powerful and dangerous men. The God of the whole universe was their master and through His power they had authority over every disease and evil spirit. The people obviously recognized this for our bibles say:

As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed. (Act 5:15-16 NIV)

People lining the streets just to have some part of Peter touch them, crowds from the towns surrounding Jerusalem bringing their sick and tormented and through this all:

more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

(Act 5:14 NIV)

I think now we are starting to get a picture of what Jesus meant when He said:

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (Joh 14:12 NIV)

And really we’re just getting started. If you flip forward to Chapter 28, you’ll see that the Book of Acts ends with Paul preaching in a rented house in Rome and then cut… cue credits. The church moves on and here we are, 2000 years and 3000 miles removed from these events with our own commission and our own plan, the spiritual descendants of the people we’re reading about. It’s amazing really.

So these guys were bold. They were respectable. They were obedient. Paragons of the Christian life and because of this God richly blessed them and they never had any problems. The people esteemed them highly and they never made any enemies. The people were all being healed and ministered to and everyone was so grateful that never a bad word was spoken against them. The End. Or at least that would be the end if this was a story written by men, but this was not, so we have a little bit more to go.

We’ve been chronicling the attacks that have been mounted against this fledgling Church. They’ve come from the outside and from within. Now we’ve got another attack coming. This one, though, is no big surprise for the government is just being true to itself. Peter and John were ordered by the Sanhedrin to cease and desist all activities pertaining to the teachings of one Jesus of Nazareth. The last time a man was healed who had been lame from birth and this angered the Chief Priests enough to get them arrested. Here we can see the reason why:

(Act 5:17 NIV) Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.

So Caiphas and Annas and all of their associates were Sadducees. We’ve already discovered how healings and miracles done by the power of a not nearly as dead as they would have liked man completely overrides their theology. They wanted these guys to stop. It was embarrassing them. The last time Peter and John were detained by the chief priest and a gathered contingent of Sadducees, this time the High Priest himself came after the lot of them.

(Act 5:18 NIV) They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.

Not a special dungeon or anything like that, just some place to keep them until they could stand trial. Same deal as before. Apparently it takes a day to convene the Council, so they threw them in a hold and assumed everything went to plan. Why not? It had before. God had other plans though. Paul would later be rescued by the men and women of Antioch. So were Joshua and Caleb, Joseph and a few others. This time God sent an angel, and all they did was open the door. I do want to point out that the angels gave a specific reason as to why they were being freed:

(Act 5:20 NIV) "Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life."

Isn’t that interesting? They were delivered out of jail, not so they wouldn’t get whipped or have to deal with wet, smelly jail cell. They were brought out to continue the work which God had set before them. Calvin pictures the angles pointing either up or away or whatever, but pointing towards the place where Jesus dwells. Remember that Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life.” They were to return to the preaching of Jesus as the savoir.

I think that’s pretty incredible. These men were well known as powerful figures. It was even believed that their shadows could heal. But can a shadow have any power? Later we’ll see Peter at the home of Simon the tanner, when a Centurion by the name of Cornelius stops by. This man would fall on his face in worship of Peter and Peter tells him to get up for he is just a man like him. I would suggest to you that there was nothing particularly special about these men, as men. Their power was entirely derived from God. When they healed, they did so in Jesus’ name in the same way that you might write checks on someone else’s bank account. God had commissioned them to preach in His name, to heal in His name even to live in His name. This is a commission we’ve been given as well.

On the other side of this contest, we find man bringing his full power to bear. Its unfortunate that the early church’s first and most vehement enemies were those that were given the specific responsibility for keeping God’s law and shepherding God’s people with it. Such is the heart of man. We take even Holy Commissions and corrupt them to our glory. And so we find that in the morning at the Temple we see the Apostles preaching in God’s name, and the Sanhedrin convening to bring trial in man’s name.

Of course the immediate problem of finding the defendants presents itself to the council:

But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, "We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside. (Act 5:22-23 NIV)

I have to admit, this is all kind of comical. They go down to the jail with every expectation of finding the prisoners because that’s what prisoners do, they stay locked up. Except that these prisoners didn’t. In fact apparently they had locked up the doors behind them and were kind enough to not disturb the guards outside while they were on duty.

On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this. (Act 5:24 NIV)

I guess I would have, too. I certainly would not have wanted to be the guy who had to go tell Caiaphas and Annas that I didn’t have the prisoners that they had convened the whole Sanhedrin together to try. Especially when my reason was because they just weren’t there. Fortunately, some conscientious soul came and informed them that they had been found, and they were back in the temple of all places.

At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them. (Act 5:26 NIV)

This is probably the most ironic statement in this whole comedy of errors. Here they were arresting God’s appointed servants who had been given authority to command demons and they were afraid the PEOPLE were going to stone them. What’s really ironic about that is the fact that stoning is a judgment. There was more to it than just throwing rocks, you had to toss the guilty in a pit first, or at least corner them. These men were deathly afraid of being judged by these men, but I wonder if the thought of God’s judgment ever entered their head. Certainly the council wasn’t thinking much on the subject of God. Check this out:

"We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." (Act 5:28 NIV)

These men were just rescued by angels, but lets give these guys the benefit of the doubt and just assume that the captain and chief priests have omitted any complications that may have arisen in bringing these prisoners before the council. Still, the High Priest’s office building was the very temple where all these miracles were taking place. The Sanhedrin was filled with priests whose job it was to administer the sacrifices taking place in that building and Scribes whose job it was to copy and teach the law from that building. The last time Peter and John were before them they recognized that a “notable miracle” had been done by these men and now they know that all of Jerusalem was “filled” with their teachings. These men were not stupid. I know its popular to think that everyone who lived more than 300 years ago was an uncultured Neanderthal, but these men wrote great books on the subject of God’s law. They were educated men in a culture of educated men. The Jews were real big on teaching their kids, and so were the Greeks. We are not dealing with an unenlightened, barely conscious peasantry. They had to have known what was going on outside their doors, there is just no way they didn’t. Yet in the end, all they were concerned with was that the Apostles were intending to bring Jesus’ blood on them. So let’s flash back:

"What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?" Pilate asked.

They all answered, "Crucify him!" "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!" All the people answered, "Let his blood be on us and on our children!" (Mat 27:22-26a NIV)

It’s amazing what we’ll say in the heat of the moment. And equally amazing at how quickly we forget it. [add some stuff here]

We should all have Peter’s response memorized by now, it’s the same thing he’s been saying for 4 chapters:

Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead--whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him." (Act 5:29-32 NIV)

When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. (Act 5:33 NIV)

I remember when I was an atheist thinking that the bible was really vague. That thought wasn’t unique to me and I still hear it all the time on TV and on the radio. I think my dad even told me that once. It’s the assumption that lies behind the statement “Well, you can’t take the bible literally.” Well, these men obviously did, and they obviously understood in stark clarity exactly what the Apostles meant because they were murderous in their wrath.

But then a man stands up by the name of Gamaliel. In chapter 22 we’ll find out that this is Paul’s instructor. He was a Pharisee, which put him at odds, theologically, with the current leaders of the Sanhedrin, but from his writings we know that he was a fairly liberal one. But in this context that’s really neither here nor there. The point is that a man stood up and pointed out that they had seen this kind of fervor before, but always while the founder of the movement was still alive. He points out that Jesus was dead, and if this is a work of man, which surely he believed, than all of this will just sort of peter out after a while and there’s no point of making any martyrs. On the other hand, if this was a work of God, then they didn’t want any part of resisting it.

It’s on that point that I think the crux of these verses hangs. Man had tried to lie and usurp the power of the church and God had intervened with judgment. God had then shown Himself in the healing and saving of many. Man then tried to suppress that power because it flaunted theirs. Their power was arrests and trials, but what vain things they turned out to be. They couldn’t even hold them in a cell 24 hours. That means, as an aside, that the Apostles appeared before that trial willingly. All of that visible power of the Sanhedrin was an illusion. They didn’t even hold the seats they were occupying by their own strength, they were appointed by Rome. They were allowed power of judgment and sentencing because Caesar allowed them to. In less than 40 years, another Caesar will burn that city to the ground and loot their Temple brick by brick. Rome itself, which at its pinnacle controlled everything on earth that mattered at the time, is gone and has been for centuries.

What a fleeting thing man’s power is, and how quickly it is dispersed. Who’s power are we trusting in? The church was built on a message. It follows one man, Jesus. It was established by witnesses to 2 events, His crucifixion and His resurrection. It sustains itself on 1 promise of His return. Our love for one another doesn’t grow churches, doesn’t sustain churches, and doesn’t make churches persevere… at least not in the long run. We can of course make it do that for a little while, but what a vain thing that would be. Gamaliel was right, had this church been established by men it would have died out years ago. Unfortunately, the church at large today has gotten itself enough critical mass to sustain itself by its own power, but we are watching even that come to an end as all of the main-line denominations are bleeding members.

Niceness doesn’t cut it. Personalities are fleeting commodities. Churches that love each other are wonderful, but they will all amount to nothing in the end with out the power of God. God has established His power in the most simple of things, a message and a book. If we trust in anything else, we are doomed.